This invention relates broadly to the art of intravenous catheters, and more specifically to such catheters including long cannulas for carrying out surgical functions in remote parts of mammal bodies.
This application describes an advantageous method and apparatus, for example, for delivering the miniature balloon catheters described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 681,676 of Paul H. Pevsner.
This invention also relates to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,703,174 and 3,826,256 to Smith.
Basically, a procedure for using miniature intravenous balloon catheters in remote parts of the body involves firstly getting the catheter through a main artery of choice and secondly, guiding the catheter on a tortuous route to an exact blood vessel to be treated, such as in the brain, for example.
With regard to getting the catheter through the main artery, this can be done by first selectively catheterizing an artery of choice, such as the axillary, femoral, or common carotid artery using the Seldinger technique. In this respect, for example, a number five French polyethelyne catheter, or catheterizing tube, 11 (FIG. 1) can be inserted in the artery to extend from outside the patient's body to the approximate area to be treated. In this regard, it is not unusual for this tube to extend from below a patient's waist to above the patient's neck, for example. Next a balloon catheter, including a long cannula 13, can be pushed through this catheterizing tube 11 by a fluid under pressure.
In the past, feeding the cannula 13 through the catheterizing tube has been unduly cumbersome and messy because it has often been necessary to aid the feeding by manual manipulation of the proximal end of the cannula, which has allowed the pressurized propelling fluid to escape. Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a catheter delivery system which allows selective manual control of the proximal end of the cannula, where necessary, but yet which allows positive feeding of the cannula into a blood vessel by a pressurized fluid without significant leakage and without the necessity of manual feeding where allowed.
Once the tip of the cannula 13 passes beyond the distal end of the catheterizing tube 11, it must often be guided and manipulated through a tortuous system of blood vessels. To accomplish this, the balloon at the tip of the cannula 13 is successively inflated and deflated through the cannula 13 to be driven by blood flow to a greater or lesser degree as desired. During this portion of the procedure, it is essential that the doctor have manual control of the proximal end of the cannula.
Thus, it is an object of this invention to provide a catheter delivery system which not only allows positive driving of a cannula by fluid under pressure where allowed, but which also allows a doctor to have direct manual control of the cannula when either it is or is not being driven by a supplied propelling fluid.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a catheter delivery system which provides the above-mentioned advantages, but yet which is relatively uncomplicated to manufacture.